Bastille

This article is about the building. For the fall of the Bastille in the French Revolution, see Storming of the Bastille. For Bastille Unix, a hardening application, see Bastille Unix.
The Bastille.

The bastille' (pronounced Bas-tee) was a fortress-prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine—best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which along with the Tennis Court Oath is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. The event was commemorated one year later by the Fête de la Fédération. The French national holiday, celebrated annually on 14 July is officially the Fête Nationale, and officially commemorates the Fête de la Fédération, but it is commonly known in English as Bastille Day. Bastille is a French word meaning "castle" or "stronghold", or "bastion"; used with a definite article (la Bastille in French, the Bastille in English), it refers to the prison.

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Early history of the Bastille

The Bastille was built as the Bastion de Saint-Antoine during the Hundred Years' War. The Bastille originated as the Saint-Antoine gate, but from 1370-1383 this gate was extended to create a fortress to defend the east end of Paris and the Hôtel Saint-Pol royal palace. After the war, it was reused as a state prison, with Louis XIII the first king to send prisoners there.

Plan of the Bastille.

The Bastille was built as an irregular rectangle with eight towers, 70 meters (220 ft.) long, 30 meters (90 ft) wide, with towers and walls 25 meters (80 ft) high, surrounded by a broad moat. Originally there were two courtyards inside and residential buildings against the walls. Pairs of towers on the east and west facades served as gates through which the rue Saint-Antoine passed. In the 1400s, these were blocked up, and a new city gate was created to the north on the present day rue de la Bastille. A bastion on the eastern approaches was built later. A significant military feature of the building was that the walls and towers were of the same height and width and connected by a broad terrace. This enabled soldiers on the wall head to rapidly move to a threatened sector of the fortress without having to descend inside the towers, as well as allowing placement of artillery. A similar provision can be seen today at Château de Tarascon.

Storming

Main article: Storming of the Bastille
Prise de la Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel.

The archives of the Bastille show that it largely held common criminals (forgers, embezzlers, swindlers, etc.), as well as people imprisoned for religious reasons (Huguenots) and those responsible for printing or writing forbidden pamphlets [1]. People of high rank were sometimes held there too, and so the prison (which could only hold a little over 50 people) was far less sordid a place than most of the Parisian prisons. But the secrecy maintained around the Bastille and its prisoners gave it a sinister reputation.

However the confrontation that led to the people of Paris storming the Bastille on 14 July 1789, following several days of disturbances, resulted from the fact that gunpowder and arms had been stored there, and the people (whose fears had been raised by a number of rumors) demanded access to these — the later idea that they wanted to free the prisoners (only 7 of whom remained) has been discounted. The regular garrison consisted of about 80 invalides (veteran soldiers no longer capable of service in the field) under Governor Bernard-René de Launay. They had however been reinforced by a detachment of 32 grenadiers from one of the Swiss mercenary regiments summoned to Paris by the King shortly before 14 July.

A crowd of around 8,000 men and women gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the guns and the release of the arms and gunpowder. Two people chosen to represent those gathered were invited into the fortress and slow negotiations began.

Regimental flag flown over the Bastille at the time of the French Revolution.

In the early afternoon around 1:00, the crowd broke into the undefended outer courtyard and the chains on the drawbridge to the inner courtyard were cut. A spasmodic exchange of gunfire began; in mid-afternoon the crowd was reinforced by mutinous Gardes Françaises of the Royal Army and two cannons. De Launay ordered a ceasefire; despite his surrender demands being refused, he capitulated and the vainqueurs swept in to liberate the fortress at around 5:30.

When the rioters had entered the Bastille, they collected cartridges and gunpowder for their weapons and then freed the seven prisoners (which they had to do by breaking down the doors, since the keys had already been taken off and paraded through the streets). Later, the governor and some of the guards of the Bastille were killed under chaotic circumstances, despite having surrendered under a flag of truce, and their heads paraded on pikes.

Demolition

A miniature of the Bastille (Carnavalet Museum).

The propaganda value of the Bastille was quickly seized upon, notably by the showy entrepreneur Pierre-François Palloy, "Patriote Palloy". The fate of the Bastille was uncertain, but Palloy was quick to establish a claim, organising a force of demolition men around the site on the 15th. Over the next few days many notables visited the Bastille and it seemed to be turning into a memorial. But Palloy secured a license for demolition from the Permanent Committee at the Hôtel de Ville and quickly took complete control.

Pierre-François Palloy secured a fair budget and his crew grew in number. He had control over all aspects of the work and the workers, even to the extent of having two hanged for murder. Palloy put much effort into continuing the site as a paying attraction and producing a huge range of souvenirs, including much of the rubble. The actual demolition proceeded apace — by November, 1789, the structure was largely demolished.

The keys to the Bastille

At the invitation of Congress of the United Sates, the Marquis de LaFayette arrived in New York on August 15, 1824, for a visit to the United States of America. LaFayette’s party included his son, George Washington LaFayette, his secretary, Colonel Auguste LeVasseur, and one servant. During his tour, which lasted more than a year, he would visit all of the 25 states that were then part of the United States.

Of his visit, William Moseley Brown, Past Grand Master of Virginia, wrote that LaFayette “undoubtedly visited more Masonic bodies and was accorded more honorary memberships than any other Brother in a like period of time, at least as far as our own country is concerned.”

During his tour, LaFayette twice visited Alexandria, Virginia. On the first occasion, October 16, 1824, he entered the city in a grand parade and was feted sumptuously by the City of Alexandria and various civic and military bodies. A grand banquet was held on that evening at the City Hotel (at that time often referred to as Clagett’s Tavern and now Gadsby’s Tavern).

The Masonic Brethren of Alexandria had planned and expected to receive Brother LaFayette in Lodge and at a Masonic banquet during this visit. Regrettably, LaFayette’s schedule did not permit it as he and his entourage departed on the steamboat Petersburg for Mt. Vernon and Yorktown on October 17, 1824. However, late on the evening of October 16, Dr. Thomas Semmes, the Worshipful Master of Alexandria–Washington Lodge No. 22, was able to meet with LaFayette and obtain his promise that he would return to Alexandria at a later date for the Masonic occasion.

Thus it was that LaFayette came back to Alexandria on February 21, 1825. In connection with their celebration of Washington’s birthday, Alexandria–Washington Lodge No. 22, together with Brooke Lodge No. 2 and Evangelical Lodge No. 8 (also of Alexandria) met and received Bro. LaFayette. Following LaFayette’s formal reception in the Lodge, the entire body proceeded across Royal Street to the City Hotel where, as reported in the Alexandria Gazette, “the company sat down about 6 o’clock, and partook of the finest feast we ever saw spread, with all the harmony peculiar to the society. . . .”

At this convocation, the Master of Alexandria–Washington Lodge No. 22 presented LaFayette with his diploma of honorary membership in that Lodge. To the Lodge, LaFayette presented the large key to the Bastille. This key is approximately ten inches in length and weighs upward of five pounds; it is on display in the Museum of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria.

Visitors to Mount Vernon will also see a key to the Bastille. On display in the Museum at Mount Vernon, this key to the Bastille is approximately six inches long and probably weighs less than a pound. Also, it is somewhat different in shape and, obviously, different in size and weight from the key presented to Alexandria–Washington Lodge.

It is most interesting that both of these keys made their way to the United States through the Marquis de LaFayette. First, the key which now reposes at Mount Vernon came into George Washington’s possession in 1790. In a letter to Washington dated March 17, 1790, LaFayette mentions that he is sending Washington a key to the Bastille. Washington’s answer on August 10, 1790, acknowledges receipt of the key. Apparently LaFayette gave this key to Thomas Paine for delivery to Washington, as in a letter to Paine (also dated August 10, 1790), Washington acknowledged receipt of the key and thanked Paine for conveying it to him. Secondly, as noted above, the key on display at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial was personally presented to Alexandria–Washington Lodge No. 22 by the Marquis de LaFayette, our Masonic Brother, and honorary member of that lodge.

In France, the Bastille, a prison in Paris, was symbolic of the repression of freedom. Thus, the keys to the Bastille are symbols of freedom and of escape from repression.

The area today

Place de la Bastille, with the July Column in the center, and the Opéra Bastille on the right.

The former location of the fort is currently called the Place de la Bastille. It is home to the Opéra Bastille. The large ditch (fossé) behind the fort has been transformed into a marina for pleasure boats, the Bassin de l'Arsenal, to the south, and a covered canal, the Canal Saint Martin, extending north from the marina beneath the vehicular roundabout that borders the location of the fort.

Some undemolished remains of one tower of the fort were discovered during excavation for the Métro (rail mass-transit system) in 1899, and were moved to a park a few hundred meters away, where they are displayed today. The original outline of the fort is also marked on the pavement of streets and sidewalks that pass over its former location, in the form of special paving stones. A cafe and some other businesses largely occupy the location of the fort, and the rue Saint Antoine passes directly over it as it opens onto the roundabout of the Bastille.

In fiction

References

  1. ↑ "Archives de la Bastille" collected by francais Ravaisson Mollien, printed by Paris : A. Durand et Pedone-Lauriel, 1866-1904

External links